Psi Tales: The Mystery School of Atlantis

Welcome, initiate

Note: This is one of several “Psi Tales” – side-stories from the world of Psychofauna. You can find more Psi Tales here.

○ Opening Era: Spring, 2026, Manhattan

TOWARD THE LIGHTHOUSE
Official Statement of the 16^th Lodge of the Societas Hermetica Atlantias

Empyrea and Perdithia
The Atlantians called their heaven “Empyrea.” Their hell was known as “Perdithia.”

The Atlantians did not place heaven above or hell below. For them, heaven and hell were latent dimensions of the muddy earth and rolling ocean. 

Heaven was a place that you could bring directly into our plane through small acts of worship. A whispered line of poetry to a candle before dawn could bring a similar flame from Empyrea into our own world. However, a cursing of the same candle (for, say, sputtering out) would surely substantiate a candle in likeness from Perdithia.

An Exercise for the Initiate
You can try it now. Hold your hand before your eyes. Bless it, adore it, worship it. Try it. It is recommended that the skeptical initiate attempt this exercise for at least thirty seconds. Have you done it? 

See how your hand has become more more vivid. This it not a trick of perception. You have not simply “noticed” the vividness of your hand. Nay, you have summoned a hand of heaven – of Empyrea.

 In Empyrea, a divine likeness of you slumbers and waits. Through worship, you manifest your own Empyrean hand into this plane. Others who have stabilized their Empyrean selves will see it too, for they have grown Empyrean pupils and retinas, Empyrean optic nerves with which to see.  

Let blessings of your hand subside, and it will typically return to normal. Normal is the habitual place where you choose to stand between the realms of Empyrea and Perdithia.

Now raise your hand a second time and condemn it. Search your hand for imperfections. Denounce these imperfections. Detest the grotesqueries of its mottled colors and veins. Have you noticed a subtle change in your hand? 

You have caught a glimpse of your hell-self from Perdithia, which, with further curses, would creep into your cells until it filled your totality.

Efflorialis and Maliflorialis
In Atlantis, this potential for heavenly or hellish manifestation was believed to be a property of all things – of birds, of streets, of thoughts and dreams and feelings, of even the sun itself. And thus the Atlantians believed that we – and all other sentient beings – were arbiters of creation. We were the gateway between heaven and hell, the conduit. Why? Sentient beings, with their free will, can decide whether to bless or curse the things of earth.

Accordingly, the Atlantians cultivated a unique style of awareness. They called it efflorialis, a term which roughly translates to “a stance toward reality which blooms heaven into earth.” It was the sacred mode of seeing and being. To cultivate it in oneself and others was thought to be the highest virtue (or joy, or duty, depending on which sect of Atlantians you asked). Efflorialis was the means of drawing forth the Empyrean latent in all things. 

In contrast, should a vile orientation sweep the land, the stakes were high, for those possessed by their Perdithian selves would bring hell unto the world.  

The Atlantians believe that the bravest choice was to regard even difficult people as being secretly greathearted or enlightened (even if they didn’t know it themselves). In this Way of the Lighthouse, the very act of perception might manifest the Empyrean self of the other – drawing it to the shore. On the other hand, if you chose to only notice the faults and pettiness of people, you would attract their Perdithian selves into this world.

The Teletheaors
Both efflorialis (the Empyrean stance) and maliflorialis (the Perdithian stance) were considered highly contagious. A single teletheaor (or “potent perceiver”) might kick off an unstoppable chain reaction. For instance, say a teletheaor were to powerfully regard those around them as unredeemable. This would manifest their Perdithian selves. Such selves might then go on to manifest more Perdithians through their own maliflorialis.